Sight and Sound review page

Little White Lies magazine review pages

Short Films audience research

In order to understand more about the audiences short films attract, I conducted some research using an online survey. This was easy to send to others and meant that I could get some insight into whether people of my age group (15-18) like to watch short films.

This is a link to my survey:
https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/9ZPQPYT


These are the responses I received:

I was pleased to see that the majority had watched a short film before, but wasn't surprised that some people had never seen one before.

Most people watch short films 'rarely'. This therefore shows that most people won't go out of their way to watch them, and implies that advertising is poor, they aren't easily accessible or people don't know where to find them.

Most people look to watch short films, as this platform is incredibly popular among young people. Some use vimeo, and one person said they use Facebook in the 'other' category.

I hoped that this question would give me some answers as to what people like about short films.

In summary, the respondents enjoyed complex, unusual storylines/themes that you can't typically find in feature films. One response said 'it's a glimpse into someone's life no matter the context', which I thought was a really interesting view about short films. It is a glimpse into a storyline that the viewer is thrown into, and its context doesn't matter, it's left for the viewer to interpret.

This shows that short films aren't easily available for some people. They aren't mainstream, and they aren't aimed at a mainstream audience, but if people want to find them they may not know where to look.

 

For most of the respondents, if short films were easier to access it would encourage more people to watch them. This could be from better advertising, and knowing where one could access them. If short films were screened alongside feature films, like Pixar, it would mean that they reach more people.
However, as the penultimate response said, 'I don't think that the short film medium lends itself to more blockbuster approaches... bigger isn't always better'. It is a niche medium with a much smaller audience than short films, and that is its intention. The media and the film industry doesn't push it forward because, in the grand scheme of things, not everyone likes short films.
One could argue, however, that people don't watch them because they have little exposure to them, and they are only screened at film festival events. Therefore we need to either advertise them better so people know how to access them, or screen them at more mainstream events, or push them more during mainstream awards seasons.
But, is bigger always better? Making anything more mainstream can start to destroy the medium. It should be that if you make things more readily available, it is positive because you reach more people. But it could change the purpose of making short films, which is to create an innovative story which generates little profit, so filmmakers may start wanting to make them in order to generate revenue. This could make them much less genuine for audiences.

Little White Lies Institutional Analysis

Little white Lies 70- 'The Dunkirk issue'

Product Analysis

Market Segmentation

Why does the design appeal to the chosen audience?

• A magazine for film fanatics by film fanatics- The creators of LWL care more about the content, creation and inspiration behind films than the hype and publicity behind blockbuster high-budget movies. They focus on the creators of the art rather than what will appeal to a mass market. Interviews focus around directors and DOPs as opposed to Hollywood actors, and the reviews section includes vintage classics along with independent releases fresh into box office. Essentially, it is a magazine that presents academic ideas in an artistic way. 

• It feels like quality- The quality of the paper, the matt finish and the binding of the magazine make it seem like more than a cheaply made film mag- it feels like a substantial purchase and something that you would want to keep in a collection. 

• Looks classy and slick- It's clear that there is a lot of effort that goes into creating bespoke images for each film- press photographs for each film are drawn in individualistic styles that fit to the chosen film. Even the inside covers have unique almost 'wallpaper' style graphic drawings related to the feature film. The use of unconventional typography and imagery in such a visually interesting way is what makes it appeal to an audience that like alternative culture, and are fed up with cheap commercial magazines that are based around publicity. 

Poster Analysis- Under the Skin

A2 Advanced Portfolio- OCR's Brief

A promotion package for a new film, to include a trailer, together with two of the following three options:

• a website for the homepage for the film
• a film magazine front cover, featuring the film
• a poster for the film

A short film in its entirety, lasting approximately five minutes, which may be live action or animated or a combination of both, together with two of the following three:

• a poster for the film
• a radio trailer for the film
• a film magazine review page featuring the film

Final film and prelim task

Here is the final film:

Here is the final prelim: